Digital Leaders

Digital Leaders

Intent

In our role as Digital Leaders, we aim to share with pupils and families how to use digital technologies safely. This isn't just about staying safe whilst online, but also about how to treat digital equipment in school and at home in the right way.

As Digital Leaders, we aim to:

• Offer support within class to our friends and teachers when technical issues arise.
• Share our knowledge of using technical devices and software with others in a supporting role in lessons.
• Log and report issues we cannot debug to our technicians at Gipping Valley.
• Present termly assemblies on issues we feel are pertinent to the school community.
• Ensure the Computing Suite is kept organised and ready to use for other classes.
• Ensure the Chromebooks are stored correctly.
• Create meaningful displays to inform the school of how to use technology in a safe and productive way.
• Lead activities during Safer Internet Day in class and around the school.
• Design screensavers for the PCs in the Suite with child friendly safety messages.
• Support the teacher leading assembly by preparing music and operating slideshows and the big screen within an assembly.

Implementation

Children in Years 4, 5 and 6 who are interested in this role must fill in an application form stating who they are, describing their interests and explaining the reasons why they would like the job and what qualities or experience they believe they could bring to the role. Mrs Gale then selects the best 3 candidates to represent the school from each of the 3 classes. So they can easily be identified around school, the we are presented with a Digital Leader badge which we wear proudly every day at school. 

Digital Leaders meet fortnightly at lunchtimes with Mrs Gale to discuss any issues we have logged. During this time we will work on our current project - preparing an assembly, sorting out hardware, checking BeeBots are ready for use for the younger children, uploading evidence of learning in lessons onto Google Sites.

Impact

We are very lucky at Birchwood to have some amazing resources. Our climate controlled Computing Suite is able to house 30 PCs. We have recently purchased a class set of Chromebooks and as a Google School, the children at Birchwood are quickly becoming experts at organising and creating documents within Google Suite. Ensuring our PCs and Chromebooks are in working order for every lesson is a big job, and without the diligence of the Digital Leaders, lessons would quickly become frustrating if resources have not been put back in the correct place, devices have not been charged and faults left unchecked.

In order to safely and confidently use our devices, children need to know what to do if they come across a problem or something that makes them feel uneasy. It is thanks to the Digital Leaders that pupils at Birchwood know the right thing to do and who to talk to. The lessons the children learn within school go home too - making a positive impact on the use of technologies within the home. Our Digital Leaders were instrumental in writing our child friendly Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs) for Reception, KS1 and KS2.

Birchwood's Digital Leaders 2019 - 2021